Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S4W-21298

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 4 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what priority local service improvement groups for chronic pain give to raising with their local NHS boards staff shortages and significant waiting lists for chronic pain services, which were identified in the Healthcare Improvement Scotland Report, Chronic Pain Services in Scotland: Where are we now?

Question reference: S4W-21299

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 22 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 4 June 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what action the National Steering Group on Chronic Pain will take to address (a) increased waiting lists, (b) staff shortages and (c) an underfunding of the services provided at chronic pain clinics, as identified in the Healthcare Improvement Scotland report on Chronic Pain Services in Scotland: Where are we now?, and for what reasons these issues have arisen.

Question reference: S4F-02161

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 June 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 June 2014

To ask the First Minister when the Vale of Leven Hospital inquiry will be published.

Question reference: S4W-21121

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 29 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-19746 by Alex Neil on 3 March 2014, whether it has completed its collation of the information that it holds on the costs of the inquiry and, if so, when it will publish this.

Question reference: S4W-21120

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 29 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S4W-19746 and S4W-19663 by Alex Neil on 3 and 4 March 2014 respectively, what recent discussions it has had with Lord Maclean regarding when the report of the inquiry will be published.

The inquiry has now received the last of the responses to warning letters, however, the report will not be finalised until the inquiry Chairman has considered each of the responses and made any necessary amendments to the report.

As it is for the inquiry Chairman to decide the timetable, as soon as this final stage has been reached the Chairman has undertaken to inform me of the timetable for publication and I will inform Parliament at the earliest opportunity.

Question reference: S4W-21191

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 29 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-20607 by John Swinney on 30 April 2014, how the Public Boards and Corporate Diversity Programme Board will ensure that the views of disabled people and staff are considered.

The scope of the Public Boards and Corporate Diversity Programme Board encompasses diversity in its wider sense, and this includes disabled people. However, the primary focus will be on women in the early part of the programme, with the learning from improving the gender balance of boards being used to increase participation of disabled people and those with other protected characteristics.

The Scottish Government works with a range of key partners to ensure that the views of disabled people and staff are heard. Our focus is on working across the Scottish Government to develop a disability delivery plan which will contribute to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and our Shared Vision on Independent Living. Within the Scottish Government we ensure that the views and opinions of all our minority groups of staff, including our disabled staff, are considered by consulting regularly with our Staff Diversity Networks and our Diversity Champions.

Question reference: S4O-03294

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 29 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what priority it places on tackling racism and sectarianism, in light of the reduction in Show Racism the Red Card’s budget.

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling all forms of discrimination and promoting a multi-faith and multi-cultural society.

That is why we are providing £60 million of funding for a range of equality projects between 2012 and 2015, which is more than double the £28 million that the previous administration provided between 2004 and 2007. This funding includes more than £8 million that we are using to support 40 local and national organisations in their work to tackle racism and break down barriers to race equality.

We are also investing a total of £9 million to tackle sectarianism in 2012-15.

Full feedback on the reasons for the levels of grant funding, which were appropriate for the outcomes to be delivered, was provided to Show Racism the Red Card at the time. From 2011 to 2015 Show Racism the Red Card and Show Bigotry the Red Card will receive £310k funding to deliver jointly agreed outcomes. As budgets are finite, any increase in funding for Show Racism the Red Card would mean less would be available for other organisations doing valuable work on race equality and sectarianism.

Question reference: S4W-21178

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-20957 by Michael Matheson on 12 May 2014, whether all NHS boards have submitted plans to deal with the staff and resource shortages, beyond vacancies, in chronic pain clinics as identified in the Healthcare Improvement Scotland report, Chronic Pain Services in Scotland: Where are we now?.

Question reference: S4W-21174

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-20958 by Michael Matheson on 12 May 2014, whether any plans were available from April 2014.

<>All NHS boards are required to include chronic pain in their Local Delivery Plans for 2014-15 and should ensure that these are published on their local websites by the end of June 2014. The NHSScotland 2020 Local Delivery Plan guidance is available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2013/11/4395.

As advised in my response to the earlier question (S4W-20958) to which the member refers, the local chronic pain Service Improvement Groups/Managed Clinical Networks have also made a commitment to publish plans on their relevant page of the national chronic pain website.

Question reference: S4W-21175

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 May 2014
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 28 May 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-20958 by Michael Matheson on 12 May 2014, whether it considers the requirement for a member’s login to be a barrier to public and patient access.